


I Used to Know You (maybe I still do)

by kitausuret



Category: Marvel 616, Spider-Man (Comicverse)
Genre: Arguing, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Identity Reveal, In This House We Love and Appreciate Character Development, Making Up, Male Friendship, Peter's Past Catching Up to Him Like, Post-Space Knight, Superior Spider-Man was terrible and ruined everything, mentioned flash & venom symbiote, post-Civil War 2, very subtle hints of future Peter/Flash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-19 06:01:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22206319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitausuret/pseuds/kitausuret
Summary: In the wake of the second superhero civil war, but before the catastrophe of Secret Empire, Peter Parker has been struggling to balance his life. He's still reeling from his life having been torn to shreds by Otto Octavius and the challenge of trying to keep his identity secret. But he's been keeping his identity secret (mostly) since he was fifteen. How hard could it be?But Flash Thompson is one of Peter's oldest and closest friends. Unfortunately, he's also one of those hurt worst by Doc Ock's takeover, and when Flash's symbiote partner gets separated from him, Spider-Man is at the top of his suspects list.Peter would never even consider taking the Venom symbiote. Ergo, neither would Spider-Man. But Flash doesn't know that. What will it take, though, to convince him that therealSpider-Man is still his friend?
Relationships: Peter Parker & Flash Thompson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 38





	I Used to Know You (maybe I still do)

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt fill requested on my [Tumblr](http://kitausuret.tumblr.com)! ([Request one for yourself!](https://kitausuret.tumblr.com/post/185480123386/send-me-a-number-and-a-paring-and-ill-write-a))  
> Tye on Tumblr asked for: _spideyflash or peter/flash 19 “Will you just tell me the truth?”_  
>  I'm sorry the shippiness is so subtle but I really love their friendshipppp but really they have loved each other for years and nothing can change that :D

_Is it proper etiquette to knock on your best friend’s window when you need to talk to him but you know he’s probably mad at you, but he doesn’t know he’s your best friend?_

Peter kept himself on the wall outside Flash Thompson’s window through a combination of static cling and an unwillingness to face the one person who had been everything to him. His mask felt stifling, but he knew it was perfect, he’d designed the damn thing himself, no, this was just good old-fashioned anxiety. Not even his spider-sense picking up small warnings from the world around him could drown it out. 

He perched on the ledge outside the window and gave a small sigh. What was Kingpin up to these days? Maybe it would be a good idea to go check on him. Just to make sure…

Peter shook his head. No, no; he was going to do this. He spun a web, let it latch onto the ledge one floor up, and flipped upside down to hang outside the window. He knocked on the glass, gently at first, and then louder. 

_Maybe he’s not home. Maybe he forgot to turn the lights off-_

He picked up familiar muttering inside: “Better not be that damn bird again.” Flash was in a faded Aerosmith t-shirt and looking particularly annoyed. When he looked up, he froze with his hand still on the wheel of his chair. Peter gave a small wave with the hand that wasn’t holding his whole body weight. He pointed helpfully to the window latch. 

Flash seemed… pensive. That was never good. He rolled back a couple paces and opened the window, but only a crack. “...Spider-Man?”

“Nah, I’m going by Scorpion these days.” 

He didn’t even crack a smile. 

“That was… that was a joke… um, can I..?”

“What are you doing at my apartment?”

“I can’t just pop by my biggest fan’s place just to say hi?” Flash just tightened his grip on the window. Peter sighed. “Heard you were looking for me. Wanted to have a word. Peter, uh, Parker gave me your address. Said you wouldn’t mind.”

“Did he now?” Flash muttered, and Peter probably wouldn’t have even heard if not for his enhanced senses. Still, he rolled back a couple paces and opened the window. “Yeah, okay, come - come on in.”

He let go of the webline and gave a graceful flip into the apartment. Out of the corner of his eye, there was none of the old starry-eyed, President of the Spidey Fan Club, “he’s my greatest inspiration” Eugene Thompson. Instead, he seemed more like a wary animal that didn’t trust someone stronger than him. 

It killed Peter to see that, but instead of saying anything, he leaned against the low-set, small table and crossed his arms over his chest. “Nice place.” His gaze landed on a photo of himself, Flash, and Harry a few weeks after Flash had come back from his third tour. “So what did you-”

“Did you take him?”

“...‘him’? This hero’s pretty well single these days, Flash.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about,” he snapped. “You’ve tried to separate me from him twice, and you already took him once, and now he’s gone, and I already know that people saw you on the scene and-”

“Whoa, hey, slow down.” Peter tried to keep his voice light, but over the last several months he’d learned more and more about what Octavius had done in the time of commandeering his life. He thought back as far as he could. But it couldn’t be… “I think I’ve told you, pal-”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Flash, I don’t know what you’re-”

“ _Venom!_ He’s gone! He’s gone and he’s hurting and I don’t know where he is and when I thought back on everyone who had been gunning for him, did you really think I wouldn’t remember when you _stole him from me?!_ ”

Peter felt his heart squeeze in his chest. Now that he mentioned it, Flash _had_ said something about Spider-Man having “a stick up his ass” when they’d finally encountered each other during the conflict between Iron Man and Captain Marvel. “Flash, hey, I told you, I wasn’t really myself for a while…”

“How am I supposed to know, huh? You’ve changed so much. I don’t even know who you really are. I used to, but after what you did…” Flash maneuvered over to the shelf where his two medals lay in a small box. He looked up at the photos above them - with his mom and sister, with his friends, a couple from college, with Gwen and Mary Jane and Harry. He didn’t turn around. His shoulders sagged. “How can I know what you would or wouldn’t do?” 

“Because you know me!”

“No, I don’t!” He slammed his hands on the tops of his wheels in frustration. “Would you just _tell me the truth?!_ ”

Peter froze in place. A thousand excuses stood on the tip of his tongue. The truth… _I can’t tell you the truth because I’m trying to protect you, I can’t tell you the truth because it’s been over fifteen years and you’d never forgive me, I can’t tell you the truth because you’re the one person who always had my back, even when the rest of the world hated me, and I know the moment you know the truth you’ll know why they were all right to feel that way._

_I can’t tell you the truth, Flash Thompson, because horrible things end up happening to anyone who tries to bear this burden with me, and I’ve seen so much shit happen to you already that I couldn’t forgive myself if anything else did._

But Flash deserved better than Peter’s excuses. 

He crouched beside Flash’s wheelchair and sighed. “You’re right. I haven’t been honest with you, and I’m sorry.” He scratched at the place where his mask met the collar of his top, all at once feeling stifled by the carefully constructed material. “You deserve better, Flash. A better friend; a more _honest_ friend. 

“I just hope I can make it up to you after all these years of not telling you the truth.”

And in one smooth motion, Peter grabbed the end of his mask, tugged it off his head, and let it drop to the carpet beside them. It wasn’t until several long moments of silence passed that Flash finally looked over-

-and his jaw fell open. “Wha…” He slowly turned a wheel to face Peter. “What… what the _fuck, Parker! You son of a-”_

If not for his sixth sense giving him a moment’s notice, Flash would have connected with the left hook that came next. As it was, he looked _furious_.

“You _fucking_ \- This _whole goddamned time?!_ ” he yelled. “Since we were _fifteen?!_ ” 

“Well, yeah, hasn’t been anyone else wearing this… well, no, scratch that, there’s been a few-”

“We’re in our _fucking thirties, Peter!_ ”

“Are you gonna let me talk, Flash, or are you gonna try to punch me again?”

He clenched his jaw and crossed his arms over his chest. 

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

And so, Peter talked.

He talked about everything - about the spider bite; about losing Uncle Ben; about high school and how much of jerks they were to each other and about how he secretly thought the Spider-Man Fan Club was pretty neat. He talked about college; about Gwen and Mary Jane and Harry; about Flash going into the military and everything that had happened since then. He talked about their time as roommates and as not-so-much rivals and that no, Peter didn’t know he had been Venom until Flash had already gone into space, because he had died and Otto Octavius had commandeered his body (and his whole life). 

He even told Flash about how he found the symbiote on Battleworld (on accident) and let it get attached to Eddie Brock (also on accident) and that, no, _Peter_ himself never stole the alien from Flash (that was all Doc Ock, thank-you-very-much).

And by the end of it, they were half-laughing, half-crying over the fact that in the brief moments the symbiote had recently bonded to Peter, it surely had been unable to avoid his true identity. It just managed to keep that hidden from Flash. 

Flash sniffed and wiped his eyes, still laughing. Peter handed him a tissue and sat next to him on the couch they’d somehow found themselves seated on. “Pete, I’m… I’m so sorry. I know you never would take, or try to hurt someone that means so much to me.” He fidgeted a little. “Even if you’re, uh, still trying to work through some things.”

“Well… we all are. C’mere.”

He opened his arms and after a moment, Flash settled in against him. Flash wasn’t a _small_ guy by any means, his shoulders alone may have been wider than Peter’s, but there was something inherently soft about him when his guard was down. Peter hadn’t noticed it for a long time, not until their brief tenure as roommates, but it was kind of endearing. He still felt that old protective instinct, but at least now he didn’t have this _weight_ on his back.

It was kind of amazing.

“You know, I guess I should’ve seen it.”

“Seen what, Flash?”

“The fact that you were Spider-Man. I mean, come on, I always knew you were muscular under the sweaters and the button-up shirts, and all those times you just happened to get that burst of adrenaline?” He shifted to grin up at Peter. “Sorry for making it weird.”

Peter shrugged. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve always had my identity pretty heavily guarded. I worry about the people I care about being made a target. Besides, it was nice always having someone as my support.” Almost absently, he stroked his hand through Flash’s hair. “That’s why when I came here and you were so mad, I knew I fucked up somewhere along the way and I had to make it right.”

“I just wish you would’ve _told me_ sooner. If you had, I probably could’ve figured out about Doctor Octopus so much quicker. Venom and I both knew something was wrong and we even told the Avengers. And then we might not have fought you in Philadelphia months ago…”

“Actually, you probably would’ve. I’m, uh, not great about trusting people when they say they’ve changed. And I’m still not _totally_ convinced about the alien.”

Flash rolled his eyes but didn’t sit up. “So then help me find him. Get to know my partner a little better. Help me rescue him and we’ll tell you _our_ story.”

“If it means that much to you…”

“It would, Peter. You’re still my hero, but now I know you’re my friend, too.” His smile softened. “And you’re still one of the best men I know.”

Peter smiled back at his friend. “There’s no one it means more coming from, Flash.” He hugged Flash tighter. “Thank you for hearing me out. I want to be better to people I care about, especially you.”

“One day at a time, Pete. One day at a time.”


End file.
